With the publication of result of the 38th BCS (Bangladesh Civil Service) examinations, quota system in BCS has come to an end.
The final results of the 38th BCS examinations under the PSC were published on Tuesday. The quota system was followed in the 38th BCS for the last time. From now onwards the appointment in BCS will be done based on merit.
PSC Chairman Mohammad Sadiq said, “The 38th BCS exam is the last one where the quota system has been applied. Though the circular of 40th BCS was published before the abolition of the quota system, we will follow the government's last order regarding quota.”
“As the government has issued a circular abolishing the quota system, there is no scope for quota in the 40th BCS. So, you can say the era of quota system has ended with the 38th BCS,” he added.
On October 3, 2018, about a month before the Cabinet approved the proposal to abolish the quota, the PSC issued a notification of 40th BCS for appointment to 1903 posts.
About 20,000 candidates who took the written test of this BCS are now waiting for the results. It was said at the time of notification of the 40th BCS that the latest quota policy of the government will be applied while giving the results.
It is mentionable that quota system has been followed in the appointment of first and second class government employees for long 48 years.
According to Article 29 (3) (a) of the Constitution, the state will make special provision in favour of any backward section of citizens for the purpose of securing their adequate representation in the service of the Republic.
In accordance with the above provisions of the Constitution, in order to bring the backward section of the people into the mainstream, the quota system was introduced in 1972 through an executive order.
From 1972 to 1976, there was a provision of 20 percent merit recruitment in the civil service. Later, in 1976, the merit-based recruitment was increased from 20 percent to 40 percent.
In 1985, provision was made for 45 percent recruitment on merit basis in first and second class posts. Of the remaining 55 per cent, 30 percent were reserved for the children of freedom fighters, 10 per cent for women, 10 per cent for districts and 5 per cent for minorities.
Of the existing quotas, the quota which does not have a sufficient number of eligible candidates, the provision was made to fill 1 percent of the posts by disabled candidates in 2012.
However, analyzing the data it is known that even though a good number of meritorious students passed the BCS, they did not get jobs due to quota system. On the other hand, hundreds of posts remained vacant.
According to the PSC report, there were at least 6,000 vacancies in various cadres of the 27th to 38th BCS due to lack of qualified candidates in the quota.
Even though the 32nd special BCS was taken only for the quota candidates, in that BCS also a total of 1,125 posts including 718 freedom fighters quota, 10 women and 297 minorities have to be left vacant.
After that, PSC relaxed the quota from 33rd BCS on condition to eligibility. As there were no qualified candidates in the quota, 77.40 percent candidates got chance from merit list in 33rd BCS, 67.49 percent in the 35th BCS and 70.38 percent in the last 36th BCS.
As a significant number of posts remained vacant in the 32nd BCS, questions were raised about the rationality of quota system.
Later in 2018, students burst into protests demanding the abolishment of quota system in BCS. The government then came up with the decision of abolishing quota from the BCS exams which will be effective from now onwards.
